Tyler Eifert: The Player Needed Most for a Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl

By Simon Greene

Matt Cashore – USA TODAY Sports

To come out and say that drafting one tight end is all the Cincinnati Bengals need to win the Super Bowl next year is a bit ridiculous, I know. I’m sure that without reading the article I’ll get a Tweet or two about how stupid my idea is, but let me save you from having to delete it in shame when you realize I might actually be right (this has happened before).

It’s obvious at this point that the Bengals offense need an extra boost that would come from a first-round pick such as a wide receiver or a tight end. Drafting a wide receiver however, is often tricky.

Teams could draft one early in the first round who wind up being complete busts, such as Justin Blackmon, a wide receiver chosen by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first round of last years’ draft and managed 865 yards. This may seem acceptable enough, but in one game he chalked up 236 yards, and didn’t break 100 yards the rest of the season.

In the case of Tyler Eifert, it’s already clear that he is an excellent blocker (which is a tight end’s first job), and he has solid hands. If the Bengals create the right routes for him, he will also make an excellent receiver.

It’s easy to argue with me on this point, but I think that drafting a first-round tight end has less risk than a first round receiver. He won’t get the numbers that could be possible from a first-round receiver, but he will still put up decent numbers and is a threat to any end zone.

The two tight end system and the Cincinnati Bengals

The two tight end system is a system that has worked time and time again for the New England Patriots over the last few seasons. No matter how much people prepare for it, it always works for them, but if you ask me, I think that the Bengals can make it work better for them.

The Bengals have an excellent offensive line that gives their quarterback that extra few seconds in the pocket just like the Patriots, and although their quarterback isn’t at the same level yet, he is still an extremely skilled quarterback capable of shining in this offensive spread.

The Bengals already have tight end Jermaine Gresham, a two-time pro bowler and last season’s second highest receiver on the team, so adding another top-quality tight end is all the Bengals need to begin implementing the system.

This is where bringing in Eifert would be perfect. To have a duo the likes of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez would be huge for the Bengals offense and they could have that in Gresham and Eifert.

The key here for the Bengals is something that the Patriots have not had the past few years — a top-class wide out like AJ Green. The Patriots had one of the leagues’ top slot receivers in Wes Welker, but I feel that having someone who can stretch the field as well as Green could be what makes this system work for the Bengals like no other team.

The other upside to this of course is that their already top-notch defense would then be better able to prepare for playing the Patriots in the playoffs when the time inevitably comes, and learning by being a part of this system could be the difference in beating them when January 2014 rolls around.

It’s understandable to say that there are a lot of areas that the Bengals could put the picks I just theoretically threw away to good use, like fixing up the secondary and solidifying the back field. However, drafting Eifert in the first round is an obvious choice can bring a whole new era of offense to this team, helping the Bengals to outscore their opponents or keep up with them when they get ahead.

In each of last seasons’ six losses, the Bengals were behind by a minimum of two scores by the end; but, with a new offensive system, the Bengals could keep themselves within only a few points in those games, giving them opportunities to kick or create unease in the opponents’ offense, which could lead to turnovers.